


Taking It Slow

by SylvanFreckles



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bad Parent John Winchester, Coming Out, Dean Winchester Has Internalized Homophobia, Destiel - Freeform, Good Sibling Sam Winchester, Homophobia, M/M, Romance, Slash, Sleeping Together, brotherly feelings, first slash fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 07:00:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26847814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SylvanFreckles/pseuds/SylvanFreckles
Summary: It's an early, quiet morning in the bunker, and a few truths are finally coming out. Sam has a heart-to-heart with his brother and maybe, just maybe, helps him take another step toward freedom. (First Destiel fic)
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester
Comments: 25
Kudos: 250





	Taking It Slow

**Author's Note:**

> I've never done this before and I'm super nervous. But Whumptober has been really bad for my mental health this week and I just needed something with a happy ending. This is kind of how I can picture the show addressing Destiel.
> 
> Please read with caution if you've had a bad experience coming out to a loved one. While Sam is a good brother, not everyone has that experience, and I would hate for something in this to hurt you. I give free virtual mom-hugs, and whatever happens you'll always be part of my family.

The bunker was quiet this early in the morning, but Sam could hear the faint sounds of someone banging around in the kitchen. He made his way down the steps expecting to find Cas, their angel-turned-human companion, but found his brother instead.

“Dean?” Sam peered around the corner, just a little disappointed to find the kitchen otherwise empty.

“Heya, Sammy,” Dean called over his shoulder. He had put a pot of coffee on, and it looked like he was assembling ingredients for pancakes. “Blueberries or chocolate chips?”

“What?” startled, Sam leaned over his brother's shoulder. “You bought fruit?”

“I'm just kidding,” Dean replied, elbowing Sam in the stomach. “It's chocolate chips.”

Sam gave a loud huff, pretending annoyance, and walked past Dean to the coffeemaker. “Hey, have you seen Cas this morning?” His brother suddenly fell silent. Sam shot him a look only to see that Dean had turned away from him, the tips of his ears red, his hands suddenly clenched around the mixing bowl. “Dean?”

“Did you, uh...did you need him?” Dean asked. He seemed to realize he was holding the bowl too tightly and set it on the counter, except in his obviously upset state of mind he set it on the edge and as soon as he pulled his hands away the bowl tipped over.

“Dude!” Sam lunged to catch the bowl before it could splatter everywhere. He only ended up covered in flour, thankfully Dean hadn't added the wet ingredients.

“I'll get the broom,” Dean said, voice subdued.

“No, hang on,” he stared at the bowl for half a second before straightening it up to place it on the counter. Dean was still standing with his back to him, head lowered and shoulders drawn in, as though expecting an attack of some kind. Sam took him by the shoulders and propelled him over to the table, shoving him down into a seat.

He took the seat opposite and stared at his brother, who still had his head lowered as though afraid to make eye contact. “All right, what's going on? Does this have anything to do with where Cas is this morning?”

Dean almost physically flinched at the question, practically drawing in on himself. He brought his hands up to the table and stared at them, rubbing one thumb over the other in a small, repetitive pattern.

“Dean?” Sam suddenly wanted to be next to his brother, to wrap an arm around him, to tell him everything was okay, but knew his stubborn nature would reject it. If Dean was caught this deeply in his own sense of self-loathing and shame, nothing would comfort him until he was broken back out of it. “Let's start small. Where's Cas?”

He thought Dean wasn't going to answer. For a moment his older brother's face turned mulish—jaw clenching, brow furrowing, a little bit of the Winchester Glare peeking through. Then something changed and Dean practically wilted, curling back down as though he could fold back inside himself and disappear. “He's...he's in my room,” Dean finally admitted in little more than a whisper.

“Oh.” Sam sat back, blinking. He hadn't expected...it wasn't like they ever...there had been so many times, of course...and he'd always teased.... “Is that...good?” he asked hesitantly.

Dean shrugged. He risked a glance up at Sam, but whatever he saw in the younger Winchester's face made him shut back down. “I just...we were....”

Oh god. Dean thought he was _disappointed_. Dean thought he was _disgusted_. “Hey, hey, come on,” he said, trying to make his voice as soft and encouraging as possible. Sam leaned across the table to rest a hand on Dean's forearm and tried to duck down enough to make eye contact, but his brother was carefully looking away. “Dean, there's nothing wrong with that, okay? If you're...if you two are happy, that's all that matters, right?”

“It's not...” Dean shrugged and finally looked up at Sam, and Sam felt a pang in his heart for the despair he saw in his brother's eyes. “It's just...it's not _natural_.” He said the final word with a sneer, and all Sam could hear was their father's voice at that moment. John Winchester had been many things, but tolerant wasn't one of them. He'd raised his boys to be _men,_ not...not....

Anyway, that wasn't what mattered now. “Dude, how much of our life is natural?” he asked. He even managed a smile. “After everything we've been through? Something 'unnatural'...screw that, something _supernatural_? That's a good thing, Dean.”

“You don't,” Dean swallowed. “You don't mind?”

Sam wanted to shout, to wrap his arms around Dean, to find his mother's resting spirit and tell her she was right. “Of course I don't mind,” he said. He shifted his grip to Dean's hand and squeezed. “Dean, I just want you to be happy, man. Cas, too. And if that means the two of you are together? No, I don't mind; I'm ecstatic.”

Dean's shoulders relaxed just a fraction. “It's always been better when he was around, you know?” he explained. His voice was so soft, so fragile, that Sam barely dared to breathe. “And after everything, after he lost his wings for real this time...we just...” he swallowed and looked away.

“How long?” Sam asked. He was pretty sure Cas had been at least a little bit in love with Dean since the beginning, but Dean might not be ready to think about that yet. His brother still had so much trouble seeing himself as worthy of love.

“Couple weeks,” Dean replied, shrugging.

“Weeks?” Some little brother he was, he hadn't even noticed Dean's secret relationship despite living right on top of each other.

“We're...we're taking it slow,” Dean said. “Baby steps.”

Sam nodded, mind whirling. Now that he thought about it, there had been a few signs over the last few weeks. Watching a documentary about bees instead of yet another cowboy movie, Cas teaching Dean to cook more ethnic foods to “broaden his palate”, Cas falling asleep against Dean's shoulder in the library (Dean had brushed that off as the ex-angel's lack of personal boundaries). And the clothes. Cas had been wearing more and more of Dean's clothes, and Sam had just assumed that their friend didn't have much of a wardrobe of his own.

Oh god. And Cas was in Dean's _bedroom_.

“So...you two are....” He should have brought his coffee over. Hell, he should have brought the bowl of pancake mix over. Anything to shut himself up before actually asking his brother about his _sex life_ with their _best friend_.

Dean had gone red again, pulling his hands away and staring down at the table again. “We haven't...we're just sleeping.”

“Just sleeping.” Sam knew the disbelief was thick in his voice, but he couldn't quite get rid of it. “You're just sleeping. In your bed. Together.”

His brother shrugged. “We're taking it slow,” he mumbled. “We're just...taking it slow.”

Sam heaved out a sigh and nodded to himself. Okay. Cas, at least, didn't have the best track record with relationships, and Dean was still knotted up with the shame their father had twisted around him. “But he makes you happy?”

Dean swallowed. “He's always...it's always been him, Sammy.”

Well, that was that. Sam leaned across the table again, catching Dean's hand. This time his brother looked up, and Sam gave a gentle smile when they made eye contact. “I'm glad. Thank you for telling me, Dean.”

This time when his brother flushed and pushed him away it was more familiar. “Dude, I'm shacking up with another guy and you're still the biggest girl here,” he complained. There was a tremor in his voice, like he wasn't sure he could joke about this yet, but Sam laughed it off like it was perfectly normal.

He heard the slight brush of footsteps in the hall and turned in time to see Cas shuffle in. The former angel was wearing a pair of Dean's plaid pants and was wrapped in the older Winchester's robe. “Good morning, sleeping beauty,” Sam teased.

Cas pulled up short, rubbing one hand across his eyes. “Sam?”

There was a flicker in his eyes as he looked at Dean, and when Sam looked back at his brother he saw a soft, tentative smile. “It's okay, Cas. We...we talked.”

The ex-angel looked back to Sam. “You did?”

Sam couldn't quite figure out what to say. Dean was easier, he just needed to be pushed into accepting himself. But how do you reassure someone who's seen millennia of existence and suffered through more rejection and heartbreak than you would ever see in your lifetime?

In the end he simply stood up and wrapped Cas up in a hug. The ex-angel hesitated for a moment before bringing his arms up to Sam's back, practically nestling into the embrace.

“It's good news, Cas,” Sam whispered. “Really. I'm so happy for both of you.”

Cas's arms tightened around him. “Thank you, Sam,” he whispered back.

“Stop hogging my boyfriend,” Dean complained. Sam grinned and released Cas, looking over to see the uncomfortable flush on his brother's face. Yeah, they'd all have to get used to the 'boyfriend' thing. “Cas, c'mere,” Dean patted the chair next to him. “Sammy said he'd make us breakfast to celebrate.”

“Oh really?” Sam replied, laughing.

“Of course,” Dean retorted as Cas took his seat. “You already ruined my pancakes, after all.”

Sam shook his head. “Well, I hope you're happy with bagels, because that's about all I can manage.”

As he turned to pull the toaster out of the cupboard, he caught sight of something that made him smile even broader.

On top of the table, in plain sight, Dean and Cas were holding hands.

Baby steps. Just taking it slow.

**Author's Note:**

> Be gentle with me! This is literally the first romance I've ever written.
> 
> I would appreciate constructive comments if I handled anything poorly.


End file.
